


10. Singing

by blueeyesblazing



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: A bit sad, Gen, M/M, a bit happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27244213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueeyesblazing/pseuds/blueeyesblazing
Summary: For the Writober prompt. Also, the only one that I managed to write, given what a wild ride this month has been, but an attempt was made. I posted this to my tumblr at the beginning of the month but only just started my AO3 so am posting here as well!
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Thor
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	10. Singing

There is no word for a duet in Asgardian, because most songs were composed in two parts to be sung in parallel. Music was a form of communion, in much the same way one shared jugs of mead or loaves of bread. Whether it was a pair of skalds retelling the classics at a week-long feast or a rousing drunken chorus in a smoky tavern, singing was not meant to be a solitary activity.

Their mother had taught them songs in their youth as well. She sang lullabies of the birth of the universe, poems about lovers parted and reunited, and mysterious elegies for events yet to happen. At bedtime, she would pluck her small lyre and they would faithfully echo her strains, drowsing to the sound of her soft, velvety tones encircling them as securely as any blanket.

Later, over campfires under the starlight of unfamiliar constellations, he had sung those same songs with his brother. Even when that far from home, for years at a time, often with the threat of battle at dawn, that simple act had always made the darkest nights brighter.

He had stopped singing the day she died. His father and brother followed, then others, so many others. How could one even voice a requiem when the entire choir had been struck down? And so the silence remained like a stone in his heart, for who was there left to accompany him, even if he wished to sing?

The first time he heard Bruce humming, he couldn’t believe his ears. Muttering, sometimes even arguing to himself, that was pretty standard, but he would have never guessed that the man had any musical inclinations. Yet there he was, quietly humming a simple melody while flipping pancakes in the kitchen of their little seaside cottage as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It might have been some classic rock anthem or the theme song of a television show, for all he knew – Banner’s sometimes-dubious pitch made it difficult to tell – but it hit Thor with all the force of a symphony after those years of strangled silence. He started humming along without even thinking.

 _You must sing as you love, weaving and melding your voice and destiny with that of those who inhabit your life_ , she had once told them. In that way, they all joined the ongoing harmony even when they were no longer there.

That particular spring morning, their song embodied so much more than it was originally meant to – it commemorated, it wooed, it uplifted, and it mourned. Maybe a part of him had been curious how they would sound together, but it was really much simpler than that. It was a song and as such, required a partner to complete it.


End file.
